Dusk till Dawn
by jennstar
Summary: In the wake of a nation wide terrorist attack survivors struggle to put things back together. Our story starts in the Docks of Dakota.
1. New places

Between the NeoBang and a group calling themselves "The Dusk" bombing goverment buildings and powerplants and attacking people randomly all over the United States, Canada, and Mexico, everything had gone to hell. Or maybe it was an apocalypse and we didn't know. Well we won't know untill power gets restored to the rest of the North America.

I had a lot of luck both bad and good. Bad luck, I was at the epicenter of the NeoBang. Good luck that it didn't mutate me more then amplifying my original mutation. Bad luck, the shapnel mutilated my back and legs. Good luck, Hotstreak found me and cauterised the worst of my wounds before I bled out. Bad luck, It's going to be a long time before I can walk again. _If_ I can ever walk again. Good luck, Francis said he'd make me a wheelchair.

Francis secured the docks as our base. I'm currently working on making a security system out of what ever tech our scavengers get their hands on to keep it ours and to keep the kids safe. Yes, kids. Twenty between the ages of six and thirteen. The little ones call me Papa Richie and the older ones call me Scrap. Why Scrap? Apperantly because I can make anything out of scraps.

The main core of our group besides Francis and me are Maria, Teresa, Leo, Jacklyn, and Vincent. Who I know better as Aquamaria, Talon, Onyx, Puff, and Ferret. Lord knows I never expected to get to know them. The kids call Teresa, Nana. She put herself incharge of taking care of them. she's a natural mother. Maria can cook like no other. It didn't suprise me when I learned she had dreams of owning a resturant. I was very suprised to learn that Leo was a paramedic before the Big Bang and that he and Jacklyn were engaged. Vincent was a street kid his whole life and he knows every little hidden wiggle space in the city. not to mention he's fimiler with edible wild plants which he harvests for us when he can.

I looked up from my journal when my door opened, "Hey, Francis."

"Hey. I finished the wheelchair. Wanna take a spin?" He gestured at the chair he pushed in.

"Sure. Give me a hand?"

He picked me up from my seat and set me in the wheelchair. I rolled back and forth and turned experimentially.

"Works great." I smiled up at him and cheered spinning a full circle, "I am mobile!"

He laughed, "Now come on, Scrapy, Maria's gonna kill me if I let you eat in your room now that you have wheels."

I turned and rolled out to the dinning room where I was greeted by shouts of, "Scrap!" and "Papa Richie!" and "Yay! Now you can play with us!"

"Play can wait till after dinner." Teresa redirected the children to the makeshift dinning room.

"Thanks." I smiled gratefully at her.

"No problem. I figured you weren't up to being pounced."

"Dinner's on!" Maria called from the kitchen doorway.

I set my self in the spot free of a chair between Francis and Leo.

"How are you doing Richie?" Leo asked.

"Much better now that I'm mobile." I answered honestly, "_Really_ glad I don't need to be carried around anymore."

"Good." He smiled at me, "Now eat, you're to skinny."

I never thought the large bang baby could be such a fusser.

Dinner was fish and wild vegetables. There was talk of starting a vegetable and herb garden and that it was going to be a long time till things were back to normal, so what should we do about school for the kids. I offered to teach math and science. subjects corsed through finding other groups of survivers from the Dusk attacks in Dakota to what more can we do to make the docks more secure to what else can we do to get more food.

After dinner I told the kids a story about one of the times I'd been kidnapped. of course I exaggerated and embellished bits to make it more exciting.

"You ready to go to bed?" Francis asked giving me a look that also asked if I was hurting. He never asked out loud for sake of my pride.

"Yeah." Right now I just wanted to lay down and cry because I hurt so bad.

He helped push me to our room he parked my chair on the side of the room oppisite of the bed. He picked me up arms around my chest and my feet set on his and he walked me across the room to the bed. By the time we got to the bed tears were streaming down my face. I know doing this kept me from losing the use of my legs, but it _hurt_.

He laid me down and rubbed my legs with almost-to-hot hands leaching the pain away.

"Thank you, Frankie." I whispered

"No prob, Rich."

He paused to change into his pajamas before he helped me into mine. then he crawled in behind me and curled around me. The abnormal warmth that came with his powers seeped into my body and dulled the pain.

It was a ritual we'd gotten use to over the past month.


	2. Old faces

It was a week till I got use to all the bumps and dips the wheels would hit in the ground.

I was heading out with some of the scavengers to help gather more junk tech for me to work with. They'd seen some weird pieces that looked familiar. They said some of it looked like what I made for the docks. Plus "some weird dome thingy" that looked familiar from somewhere else.

As we neared the Junkyard something occured to me, "By any chance did you find the stuff in an abandoned gas station?"

"Yeah. How did you figure that out?"

"That's my old lab. I use to invent things in there. That dome thing you saw, did it have a red circle at the center?"

"Yeah it did. your old lab? Seriously?"

I was suddenly very happy, "Yes. Now lets hurry up there's some stuff I want back."

We weaved our way through the junk yard. I remembered the path to the old gas-station easily. The moment I crossed the doorway Backpak activated, lept off the desk, all but bounded across the floor to me, and jumped into my lap, seriously startling the others. They looked at me strangely as I petted his metal shell.

"This is Backpak. My most advanced invention ever. My favorite too." I said softly, "I was Gear."

"Damn, you were a Hero?"

"Yeah." a wave of sadness flowed over me, "I wonder how Static's doing?"

We all got quiet after that as we worked on gathering up my inventions and tools.

A half hour later a sudden crackle filled the air and an angry voice shouted, "Who the hell are you and what the fuck do you think you're doing?"

I spun around so fast I almost kept going. My breath caught in shock.

"Virgil?"

"Richie?"

The crackle disappeared from the air.

"You know him?" The scavengers were ready to protect me.

"Yeah, I do. Don't worry, he's a friend. Francis knows him too."

They nodded and backed off.

Virgil looked me over, "Shit man what happened to you?"

"Shrapnel and a double dose of Bang Gas."

"We heard you were at the NeoBang, But when nobody could find you we all thought it killed you." His voice cracked.

"It almost did." I said softly, "I got a piece of shrapnel in my leg and it nicked the artery. If Francis hadn't found me I probably would have bled out."

"Francis. Hotstreak-Francis?"

I nodded, "He burned it shut. I know there's a medical term for it but it's slipping my mind at the moment."

Virgil nodded thoughtfully and pulled his Shock Vox from his coat, "Hey Pops."

"Virgil is something wrong?" His father's worried voice came over the line.

"No just the opposite. Could you get the Foley's this is something they need to hear."

"okay. I'll be back in a moment."

The scavengers looked around for anything else we might be able to bring with us on this trip, "We got everything we can carry this trip. We leaving now?"

"We can walk and talk." I said at Virgil's glare, "Wanna help us carry stuff?"

"Sure." He grabbed one of the bags and pulled it over his shoulder.

The Shock Vox crackled to life again, "Virgil. are you still there?"

"Yeah. I'm here."

"You said there was something we needed to hear?" I heard my dad's gruff voice come over the line.

"Someone." He held it out to me.

I felt my chest tighten, "Hi Mom. Hi Dad."

"Richie!"

He handed me the Shock Vox and pushed my chair so I wouldn't have to divide my attention.

"Oh god, my baby's alive." Mom was crying

"Richie, how did you escape alive and well?"

"Alive, yes. Well, no." I started, "Francis found me right after the NeoBang. I was in seriously bad shape. If he hadn't found me I would have died. As it is I'm wheelchair bound."

"You're paralized?" My father choked

"No. Right now it's a toss up to whether I'll ever be able to walk without help. I got hit with a lot of shrapnel from the gas canisters and it tore up my back and legs. I can move my legs it just hurts like hell to do so."

"Where are you living, baby?" Mom's voice asked, "So we can see you and meet this Francis."

"The docks. We're living in the building just off slip fourteen. Could you wait till tomorrow? So I have a chance to let everybody know we're going to have visitors."

"Sure. With the Dusk still running around no one want's strangers showing up were they're living." my dad agreed

"I'll see you tomorrow?"

"We'll see you tomorrow."

"Till then."

"Till then."

I handed the Vox back to Virgil and started pushing myself again.

"Where are you holed up V?" I asked

"We're at the community center and the high school."

"Damn. You must have a huge group."

"We merged with another group. Believe it or not Ebon's group."

"Really? Let me guess he demanded to be in charge."

"Actually no. He's so pissed at The Dusk for hurting Adam he just wants to gather as many allies as possible so he can drop a major ass-kicking on them." Virgil shook his head, "I kinda understand though, if someone had hurt Sharon like that I'd be doing the same. Who thought I'd _ever_ have _anything_ in common with him."

I nodded, "I never thought id get to be friends with Maria, Teresa, Leo, Jacklyn, and Vincent."

"Eh am I supposed to recognise those names?"

"Aquamaria, Talon, Onyx, Puff, and Ferret."

"Oh. Wow."

I paused, "Just a minute, incoming kids"

"Papa Richie!" A handful of the younger kids came running down the path, "You're home!"

The youngest, Lina, jumped into my lap and started telling me all about how Nana was teaching them their letters and how to write their names and that Uncle Vin was going to take them to dig up more of the yummy white carrots and how Papa Frankie promised to get them some balls to play with.

She paused when she noticed Virgil, "Hi, you're new. Did Papa Richie find you like Papa Frankie found me? I had a big boo boo when Papa Frankie found me, but Uncle Leo made it all better."

"He found me, Lina. The place we went to gather stuff for me to make things with was a place where the two of us use to hang out."

"Are you Static?" one of the boys asked, "Papa tells us stories how he saved the day all the time!"

The kids looked at him with hero worship.

"Yeah I'm Static." He let electricity jump between his hands, "But my real name's Virgil."

"Wow! So cool!"

"Come on let's go in. I have stuff to put in my work room."

"Okie dokie Papa!"

"Papa?" Virgil grinned at me.

I shrugged, "Francis is Papa Frankie."

Virgil out right laughed at that.

"Yo Frankie! Scrap's back and he brought some dude with him!"

Francis leaned around the corner, "Chill Ron, That's just Virgil. They've been friends since they were in diapers."

I led Virgil down the hall to my work room. The scavengers set their bags down on the cot in the corner and headed off. V and I were organizing and putting stuff away when Francis came in.

"Hey. Never thought I'd say this, but I'm glad you're alive and kicking." Francis greeted Virgil.

"Miss me?" He teased weakly

"Not really, I was worried what it'd do to Richie to find out otherwise."

Virgil turned serious, "Thank you for saving Richie's life. I don't know what I would have done if..." he shook his head.

"Yeah well I figured if Static found him dead he'd go insane. I don't want to go head to head with an insane electromancer." Hotstreak avoided looking him in the eyes.

"You know if I had I probably_ would _have gone insane."

"Wait, What?"

Virgil summoned a ball of electricity.

Francis' jaw dropped, "and you were never temped to zap me when I bullied you?"

"I was tempted but I didn't want people knowing who I was. one time someone figured it out they kidnapped my dad to force me to work for them. Then dad figured out who I was really quick."

"Wait Ebon was ranting about you not being Static cause you were still trapped in a cell when Static showed up."

"That was my doing." I preened, "I used Backpak to create a video loop to make it look like he was still in the cell."

He looked at me then glanced sideways at Virgil, "Remind me never get on his bad side. I don't want to know if he could pull off a mind fuck of epic proportions."

I blew a raspberry at him


End file.
